Vol. 27, No. 2 (2015)
Activity Investigation of Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquid as Catalyst for Friedel-Crafts Alkylation 653
temperature is further raised, the conversion of aromatic
compound would inevitably decrease. From the viewpoint of
conversion and energy consumption, 40 to 60 °C is the optimal
reaction temperature for the alkylation of aromatic compounds.
Influences of molar ratio of aromatic compound and
bromoethane (t-butyl alcohol) on the alkylation: The influence
of the molar ratio of aromatic compound and bromoethane
(t-butyl alcohol) on the conversion of the alkylation using
[Bmim]PF6 ionic liquid is shown in Fig. 5. The alkylation
results show that as n(bromoethane/t-butyl alcohol) increased,
the conversion of the aromatic compound increased until the
maximum was reached and then declined. The maximum of
88.1 % (benzene), 65.6 % (toluene), 73.5 % (thiophene), 69.6 %
(acetanilide), 93.2 % (phenol) and 73.4 % (anisole) in conver-
sion were observed when n(bromoethane/tert-butanol) were
3, 3, 3.5, 2, 2 and 2, respectively. At higher n(bromoethane/
tert-butanol) value, the concentration of active carbonium ion
would be diluted and the alkylation would be weakened,
resulting in a lower conversion. However, with an increase in
n(bromoethane/tert-butanol), the cubic capacity effect
decreases; thus, the circulation amounts increased to a great
extent, consequently resulting in higher production cost21.
Conclusion
The alkylation of aromatic compounds with bromoehane/
tert-butyl alcohol was carried out in a series of imidazolium
ionic liquids or its mixtures with AlCl3. The results showed
that [Bmim]PF6 ionic liquids are the most suitable media for
the Friedel-Crafts alkylation of aromatic compounds. The
reactions proceeded at an improved rate at relatively lower
temperature, yielding high product conversion. [Bmim]PF6 was
found to be the better solvent-catalyst system than the AlCl3
system, which can efficiently substitute the AlCl3 catalysis
system. High conversion of the limiting reactant could be
obtained using this catalyst. Moreover, the selectivity of the
target product exhibited a large increase. The effects of various
parameters, such as temperature, catalyst type and catalyst
loading, on the aromatic compound conversion and product
selectivity were studied. The applications of imidazolium-
based ionic liquids as solvents or catalyst for other reactions
are under investigation in our laboratory.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to Tangshan Normal University
and Fund of Science Foundation of Tangshan Normal Univer-
sity (No. 2014D02) for financial support.
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